Good Food Good Life

This past Sunday we were making crepes at Williams-Sonoma. We had the opportunity to taste some of the best new products to hit the shelves for spring! The Passion Fruit Curd and Blood Orange Curd was absolutely delicious! I ran out of time before I could make my lemon curd for you. The recipe I am presenting here was introduced to me at The Ryland Inn during the Chef Craig Shelton era. I have been adapting the recipe to prepare it in the Vitamix. As soon as I perfect the recipe, I will present the Vitamix procedure as well. IN the mean time, here is the old-fashioned method. The Chinois is mighty helpful here to strain out any cooked egg that may creep into your curd.

Advice: NEVER stop mixing! Careful when you add sugar to the eggs. You must keep beating so that you don’t get scrambled eggs!

Lemon Curd

Courtesy of The Ryland Inn – under the supervision of Chef Craig Shelton

This recipe was inspired by my sister Lynn. I’ve enjoyed this recipe from the very first time she made it for Thanksgiving! I’ve made some adjustments to the original recipe to suit my tastes and make it my own. I encourage you to do the same.

Ingredients

1 Brisee Crust

Filling

6 Granny Smith Apples

½ Cup Granulated Sugar

¼ Cup Light Brown Sugar

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 Cup fresh cranberries

4 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons butter

Topping

½ Cup Flour

½ Cup Brown Sugar (light or dark, your preference)

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

½ cup of butter that has been cut into small cubes and frozen.

Procedure

Preheat oven to 425° F.

Topping

Prepare topping by placing all topping ingredients in a food processor fitted with the metal blade.

Pulse on and off until the mixture takes on the consistency of coarse cornmeal.

Place topping in bowl and refrigerate for use later in recipe.

Crust

Roll out enough pastry for a single 9” deep dish pie and place in pie dish. (You can also purchase a frozen pie shell. Google “Ready made Pie crust for options and suggestions.)

Place the pie crust in the refrigerator and keep chilled until step 9.

Filling

Peel, core and slice apples. My favorite tool for this is the Williams-Sonoma Peel-A-Way. It peels and cores in one step. Then just slice the apple into quarters.

In a large bowl, coat the apples with both white and light brown sugars, cinnamon, vanilla bean seeds, ground cloves and lemon juice.

Allow the fruit to macerate for 30 minutes in a colander over a bowl to reserve the liquid.

Cook the liquid in a small sauce pan until it has been reduced to a thick syrup.

Add butter to the syrup and remove from the heat.

Add cranberries and toss the fruit in the flour.

Putting it together

Take pie crust out of refrigerator and place on a baking sheet. Fill with fruit and pour syrup over the fruit

Evenly sprinkle topping over pie.

Bake for 15 minutes then lower the temperature to 350° F and continue to bake for about 45 minutes or until juices begin to bubble over.

Allow to cool and refrigerate. If you cut into the pie while it is hot out of the oven, the filling will run out and create a soggy crust so please be patient while it cools.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugars, cornstarch, and salt. Add the butter and pulse on and off or mix on low, until the dough barely comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently kneed to gather into a ball. Press dough into the sheet pan and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake dough in the oven about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

(Marcy, the more you bake the dough now, the more golden it will be, Just remember that its going to bake again with the topping on it.)

Prepare topping while the dough is baking. It needs to be hot when you pour it over the warm crust.

This recipe for cranberries is my favorite! I replace some water and some sugar with my Liquid Gold. Liquid Gold is a simple syrup that is flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, anise, cardamom, cloves and citrus! Then I use it to poach pears and what remains is pure liquid Gold! look for the Liquid Gold recipe in my blog!

Ingredients

2 bags fresh cranberries

2 navel oranges, (zest the oranges and reserve) cut the oranges into Supremes.

2 cups Liquid Gold

2 cups water

½ cup sugar

Directions

Place all ingredients in sauce pan and heat over medium high heat until cranberries begin to pop.

This recipe for simple syrup came from a wonderful woman who taught me how to add passion to baking. I worked alongside Eileen Wong at the Mountainville Pastry Shop for only a short while. In that short time I learned how to make this syrup that I use in so many other recipes. She also taught me how to handle pastry delicately, how to properly brown a crust, how to serve a great savory tart and how to make “White Delight”. Those were great days cooking alongside Eileen and her sister Joanne! We cooked, we talked, we laughed and I grew. Thank you Eileen and Joanne! I miss you both very much!

You can peel the potatoes the day before, then cover with cold water and refrigerate until ready to cook. Alternatively, you can cook and mash the potatoes up to 2 days in advance. Let them cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate. Just before serving, pour a thin layer of milk onto the bottom of a wide, heavy pot. Add the mashed potatoes, set the pot over medium heat and stir occasionally until the potatoes are hot.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces

Kosher salt, to taste

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1 large fresh thyme sprig

1 large fresh rosemary sprig

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. peppercorns

8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced

1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

Put the potatoes in a large pot, add water to cover by 3 inches and generously salt the water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced, about 15 minutes. Drain well in a colander.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the cream, garlic, shallot, thyme sprig, rosemary sprig, bay leaf and peppercorns. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the cream is reduced to about 1 cup, 10 to 12 minutes. Strain the cream through a fine-mesh sieve and keep warm.

Working in batches, pass the potatoes through a ricer into a large bowl. Add the butter, then gradually pour in the cream, stirring constantly until the potatoes are smooth and creamy. Stir in the chives and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Serves 8 to 10.